After the captivating drawn Test series that left Pakistan, not England, basking in a newly acquired status as the world’s No1 team, attention now switches to the 50-over format over five matches starting in sunny Southampton on Wednesday afternoon with, on paper at least, Eoin Morgan’s home side as the favourites.
Misbah-ul-Haq, who hauled Pakistan from the low of the 2010 spot-fixing scandal to the top of the Test pile, retired from limited-overs cricket last year and his replacement, Azhar Ali, has overseen something of a tricky spell for the team in green since; they are currently ninth in the one-day rankings to England’s fifth.
With Morgan’s squad theoretically only Steven Finn short of being at full strength – two global tournaments on English soil in the next three years mean the white‑ball stuff is no longer a time to rest players at home – and, having won the previous meeting between the two sides in the United Arab Emirates last November 3-1, they appear the value bet.
On the other hand, while England’s curve has been refreshingly upwards since the shambles of the 2015 World Cup their run-up into this latest one-day series has not been entirely plain sailing and they will field two men, in Morgan and Jos Buttler, who are playing their first cricket for some weeks because of broken digits.
Ben Stokes is also on the comeback trail following a calf tear and, given the all-rounder cannot bowl for the first two matches, may miss out to Jonny Bairstow while David Willey, whose left-arm angle and ability to swing the new ball has become a vital part of the attack, also sits out the opener with a hand knock.
Southampton has not been England’s favourite home venue for one-day cricket of late either, with a record of five defeats in their past five matches only mildly tempered by the Twenty20 victory against Sri Lanka this summer. Morgan is also wary of a Pakistan side that will be feeling the glow from their Test counterparts and are now well acclimatised to the conditions.
“I think it’s hugely important [we picked a first-choice side] playing against Pakistan, who are flying high at the minute in Test cricket,” the 29-year-old said. “That rubs off on any side doing well. Also when teams tour places they don’t come to that often they get better as they go along, so that’s another challenge for us.”
Morgan, who chipped a bone in a finger playing for Middlesex at the end of July, is slightly short on international runs himself, having gone 23 innings in 50-over and Twenty20 cricket without a half-century. With burgeoning batsmen such as Ben Duckett and Sam Billings missing out, despite pressing hard for selection from the Lions set-up beneath, the captain could do with a score soon.
England’s bowling, which could in theory feature three spinners if the Hampshire all-rounder Liam Dawson makes a one-day debut on his home ground, looks significantly bolstered by the return of Mark Wood – the Durham fast bowler who lit up T20 finals day on Saturday with speeds in excess of 90mph and five wickets.
Pakistan, for all their lowly ranking, come into the fixture on the back of a record 252‑run win against a callow Ireland side in Dublin last week, with their main plus being the bristling form of the opener Sharjeel Khan, who struck 152 from 86 balls. With the second fixture rained off, the electric Test pairing of the left-armer Wahab Riaz and the leg-spinner Yasir Shah did not have a run-out but are expected to feature on the south coast.
Azhar, a captain wrestling to produce some Misbah magic, views the England tour as vital preparation for the 2017 Champions Trophy and the World Cup that follows two years later – automatic qualification for the latter is not guaranteed as it stands – and hopes that some of the magic from the Test side will rub off.
“We are all very confident, no one rated us very highly and there were doubts if we could win the Test matches here,” he said. “The boys really believed in the Test series, so here also we believe we can do it. If we bring our A-game we definitely will compete and, inshallah, beat England.”
Along with being a solid workout for both teams as they plot a path to future global silverware – not to mention a chance to earn more points in the overarching, albeit scarcely mentioned, Super Series – the five-match encounter will also be a proving ground for a new way of adjudicating front-foot no-balls via the third umpire.
Marais Erasmus, who will sit in the TV booth for the first match, will be furnished with a split-screen feed of the two batting creases and have the ability, via a vibrating “pager” watch, to inform his on-field colleagues when a bowler has overstepped, thus alleviating them of one of their many split-second decisions.
The trial has been introduced by the International Cricket Council in response to recent instances of players being reprieved when dismissed off legitimate deliveries that were wrongly called no-balls; Alex Hales, whose Test-best score of 94 in May should have ended on 58 for this reason, will be grateful it did not come sooner.
England possible team
Alex Hales, Jason Roy, Joe Root, Eoin Morgan (capt), Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wk), Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes, Adil Rashid, Liam Plunkett, Mark Wood
Pakistan possible team
Azhar Ali (capt), Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Hafeez, Babar Azam, Safraz Ahmed (wk), Shoaib Malik, Imad Wasim, Umar Gul, Yasir Shah, Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Amir.
